


appreciating what you have (however long you might have it)

by Crystalinastar



Series: The Road to Crisis [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: "Oliver Queen and Barry Allen's Guide to Meeting Your Children From the Future", Advice, Children From The Future, Dealing With Children From the Future, Friendship, Gen, Phone Calls, Pre-Crisis, wow they should write a book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-18 11:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21710353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalinastar/pseuds/Crystalinastar
Summary: Oliver can't call Felicity, so he might as well call someone else with future children experience.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Oliver Queen, William Clayton & Oliver Queen
Series: The Road to Crisis [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564798
Kudos: 60





	appreciating what you have (however long you might have it)

The phone rings. Once, twice. Oliver muses about how ironic it is that the fastest man alive doesn’t answer the phone immediately.

“Hey, dude,” Barry says. In the background, Oliver hears the lapping of waves. What? “You need something?”

“Small favor,” Oliver replies. “Where are you?”

He can hear the childish grin on Barry’s face when he says, “Hawaii. Iris and I are going on a… second honeymoon? A vacation, before—you know. Doesn’t matter. I can be over there in a flash.” Oliver groans loudly. “Still funny. You can’t judge me, Mr. ‘I have failed this city.’” Barry adds a growl into his voice that is comically exaggerated. 

“I don’t talk like that.” Oliver stops, takes a breath. “Never mind. I have a problem.”

“What kind?” Barry asks instantly, ready to go, because that’s how Barry is.

“The children from the future kind.”

“Oh,” Barry responds, despondent, but trying not to show it. “First, make sure they’re not teaming up with your archnemesis.”

Sometimes Oliver forgets Barry has an archnemesis. Who could hate Barry? He’s sunshine and rainbows. Besides, what’s the point of having just one worst enemy? They all try to kill you in the end. The Reverse-Flash had killed Barry’s mother, though, so he guesses that kind trauma sticks with you.

Wait, he had missed one crucial detail. “Your daughter teamed up with the Reverse-Flash?”

“It was a mistake,” Barry says firmly. “She knows—she _knew_ better before she… died.” Lightning crackles, and so does static, before Barry inhales and exhales. “Second, don’t let them die.”

God, wouldn’t that be awful. Oliver is pretty set on dying sometime before or after they return home, because Mar Novu brought them here for a reason, but having to watch Mia and William die, knowing he’d never make it up to them… _that_ sounds like torture. (Take his word, from a guy who’s been tortured.)

“I’m sorry, Barry,” Oliver says.

“It’s in the past.” The past being only months ago. “I’m fine. Uh, remember to love them and support them—don’t treat them weird or alienate them for their life choices. That’s… that’s all I got, for now. What’re they like?”

Oliver lets himself smile. “William—I never thought I’d see him grow up, but now he has his own company, and he’s smart. Felicity-smart. And Mia… Apparently she was trained by Nyssa, and she’s good. As good as me, almost. She looks and talks like Felicity, but…” He chuckles. “She’s just like me.”

“Shoots her friends in the back?” Barry quips.

“I thought you were over that.”

“I am!” Barry insists. “But it hurt.”

He rolls his eyes, even though Barry can’t see it. “Yeah, I got that. The kids are… Star City in the future isn’t good. Mia and William never met until they were both adults. There’s a new Deathstroke—John’s son—and I don’t want them to go back to that.”

“That’s a dad’s instinct. You want to shield them from everything, but it won’t work, Oliver.” Barry sighs. “They’re grown. They can make their own decisions. You just have to be there to guide them. And don’t be overbearing,” he adds quickly, “as in Oliver Queen overbearing ‘cause that could lead to fights faster than I could run over.”

Oliver makes an affronted noise. “I’m not overbearing.”

Barry’s laugh is cut short by static, but returns soon after. “Dude, you so are. Ask Thea.”

And Oliver thinks about the Thea from Earth-2, who died because Oliver wasn’t there, and would’ve gotten swallowed up in the destruction anyways. He thinks about his Thea, and how he tries to keep her out of the fight.

“Maybe,” he begrudges.

Barry snorts. “Oh!” he exclaims. “Train Mia. She’s almost as good as you, right? Do the… salmon ladder thing.” 

That actually sounds like a good idea. He could get Mia used to more unorthodox training, have her prepared for whatever come at her.

“Dad?” William says behind him. “Quick question?”

“Gotta go, Barry,” Oliver says quickly.

“See you in… a month? Iris, how long—” 

He hangs up.

William is grinning, and that face can’t mean anything good. “Barry? As in Allen? As in the Flash?”

“No,” Oliver replies gruffly. He pauses, mulling it over. “In your future, do you know anyone named Nora West-Allen?”

William’s eyebrows furrow. “No? But I can try to find her if you want me to.”

“No, it’s okay.” Oliver’s getting too damned old for this. (He’s thirty-four, but that’s besides the point.) “Just know that you three aren’t the first kids from the future that have come to the past.”

He turns on his heel and walks away.

“Dad?” William calls. “What does that even mean? _Dad_?”

**Author's Note:**

> don't @ me you guys thought about this happening too


End file.
